All posts by rocks22

A triangle is a geometric shape that Joe Mallen used prominently as he designed the Massachusetts hockey program’s uniforms when the team moved up to Division I in the 90s. A triangle is also the Greek letter delta, which in math and science means “change”. There has been a lot of changes, good and bad, to the UMass hockey program since I started Fear The Triangle seven years ago. And there has been a lot of changes in my own life as well. Previous change in my personal life forced me to take a season’s hiatus from writing about UMass hockey once. And sure enough things keep changing and that continued change means Fear The Triangle is all done. Again. In the end, I just ran out of time.(more…)

Despite the fact that they’ve only been on the job for a few months and have yet to register a win for UMass, Greg Carvel and his staff are doing a good job of convincing high profile recruits to commit to the Massachusetts hockey program. This week they picked up a commitment from Jeremy Davidson, a right shot forward who is one of the top under 17 players in the country. In fact he’ll be representing Team USA in the upcoming U17 Five Nations Tournament next week.

Massachusetts hockey fans can begin to map out their fall and winter weekends as the 2016-17 schedule was released earlier this week. With the UMass Athletics website temporarily in transition the schedule is only available in Tweet form:

One of the criticisms of the John Micheletto era at UMass was that he did not seem to make much of an effort to lure Bay State recruits to the state’s flagship university. New coach Greg Carvel talked about targeting local talented players when he was hired and just a few months into his regime he has landed his first in-state commitment. Defenseman Jayson Dobay, who this past season played for BC High, announced his commitment on Twitter last night:

Proud to announce my commitment to play college hockey at The University of Massachusetts. Thanks to everyone who's helped me along the way

The UMass hockey team announced today that former Minuteman James Marcou has been added to Greg Carvel’s staff as a volunteer assistant coach. Marcou was a star player for UMass from 2007-2010. During his time in Amherst he was a 2nd Team All-American, All-Hockey East selection, and a Hobey Baker nominee. Despite only playing three years Marcou is fourth all-time in scoring in the program’s history with 130 points in 111 games. His 96 career assists is more than any other player who suited up for the program.

Now that Coach Carvel and his staff have indicated that they’re done assembling their first recruiting class and we know about the current players who will not be returning next year, it’s time to take a fresh look at where the program is from a recruiting standpoint. Recruiting is a fluid situation even in normal situations, so it’s been a challenge to try to keep up with all the new names that have recently committed while following which previous recruits are still committed to the school. I believe all my information is up to date. So first up, let’s take a look at the future Minutemen due in Amherst this fall.

Anyone who has followed the recent recruiting haul of UMass coach Greg Carvel and his staff for this fall has realized that the numbers didn’t add up. UMass will be adding nine newcomers this coming season but has only subtracted two seniors to graduation plus Henry Dill, whose departure was reported last month. It was clear there was further roster turnover coming and we learned which players would not be returning today. After Dennis Kravchenko’s departure was first reported today on Twitter by @USHockeyWire, Matt Vautour of the Gazette confirmed that he plus Maddison Smiley and Keith Burchett were no longer with the program.

We knew coming into this Stanley Cup Final that another Minuteman would join goaltender Jon Quick on the Stanley Cup as this year’s championship featured the Pittsburgh Penguins and Conor Sheary versus the San Jose Sharks and Justin Braun. Minuteman vs Minuteman. Captain vs Captain. The only question was who it would be. In the end the Penguins, behind both its superstar players and its emerging rookies, ended up being the victors and claimed the Stanley Cup in six games.

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Fear The Triangle will always be free. But there is some investment associated with providing first-hand coverage of UMass hockey. Specifically, domain hosting, travel, game streams, and ticket costs all add up. Not to mention the hours spent every day reading and writing about UMass hockey. I'll continue to do this for the foreseeable future even if it runs me into financial ruin (it won't, I think) and my wife divorces me (hopefully just as unlikely). But if you enjoy what you read here and want to show your support, here is a link to contribute to FTT via PayPal.

Legal Verbage.

Fear The Triangle is not affiliated with the University of Massachusetts, the UMass Hockey program or any other organizations having to do with UMass (or organizations having to do with triangles for that matter). What you read here is purely the opinion of the owner and frankly his mental state has always been suspect.